Lafayette gas station attendant arrested in 2006 North Carolina slaying

By Robert SalongaContra Costa Times

Posted:
05/24/2010 09:26:34 PM PDT

Updated:
05/25/2010 03:51:30 PM PDT

LAFAYETTE — A man suspected of killing his grandfather and shooting his grandmother in North Carolina four years ago has been arrested after spending the past year working at a Contra Costa County gas station, authorities said.

Marlon Williams was booked into County Jail in Martinez on Thursday in connection with the September 2006 shooting death of Robert Bryant, 66, in front of a church in Lenoir County, N.C. Williams also is accused of wounding his grandmother, Mildred Bryant.

The U.S. Marshals Service, with the assistance of Lafayette police, arrested Williams, who police said worked for about a year as a gas station attendant in Lafayette. It was not clear where he previously lived.

Chief Mike Hubbard said that Williams, who used an alias, was generally known as a convivial figure in the community. He was genial with local police, who recognized him as the man who helped fill up their patrol cars.

"He was very friendly to everybody," Hubbard said.

He added that Williams stayed out of trouble while working in Lafayette and that police were unaware of his fugitive status until they were contacted by federal marshals. Fingerprint evidence matched him to the North Carolina shootings, police said.

An informant tipped off agents to Williams' location, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Bryan Konig of the agency's eastern North Carolina district office.

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Williams is being held on an out-of-state no-bail warrant. A search of national criminal records revealed that Williams was convicted of robbery in 1990 in Greene County, N.C.